Hamas has launched a major attack on Israel

[Citysnaps]

But this is only going to piss people off - not endear them to your cause, which is the goal.

What's interesting... if they would have used the pedestrian walkways, they likely would have had a ton of support and honking in approval, as Marin County at the north end of the bridge and San Francisco at the south end, are very liberal.

And with the bridge being unblocked, loads more cars/people (thousands) seeing their message.

 

[Eric]

I'll just say that those protesters harassing Jewish people here in the US is not helping their case, in fact I would say it's quite the opposite.

 

[Roller]

Looks like Israel has retaliated against Iran. I expect a response more deadly than the previous Iranian attack within a few days.

 

[Alli]

Looks like Israel has retaliated against Iran. I expect a response more deadly than the previous Iranian attack within a few days.

That’s the news I just woke up to, although nothing has been confirmed yet.

 

[Roller]

That’s the news I just woke up to, although nothing has been confirmed yet.

Looks like things have cooled off a bit, but that's a relative term. Iran still would like to see Israel destroyed, but they don't want an expanding conflict that would draw the U.S. in. Iran also has proxies (Hezbollah, Houthis) who can attack Israel without them getting directly involved.

 

[GermanSuplex]

Why does Iran not want to be seen as a civil and powerful nation? These Bronze Age barbarians shut themselves off. I’d love to visit Qatar and other huge cities in the Middle East. But there’s a lot of other nice countries and cities I can visit with significantly less risk of being kidnapped or beheaded on video.

 

[Citysnaps]

Why does Iran not want to be seen as a civil and powerful nation? These Bronze Age barbarians shut themselves off. I’d love to visit Qatar and other huge cities in the Middle East. But there’s a lot of other nice countries and cities I can visit with significantly less risk of being kidnapped or beheaded on video.

A brief and paraphrased history... It all started in 1978 when the Shah of Iran, who over the years had transformed Iran into a prosperous and modern western-like country, came under growing dislike due to some of his policies and activities of his rather brutal secret police (SAVAK), causing widespread protests and demonstrations. Suffering from cancer, he left Iran to receive medical treatments overseas, including in a US hospital, which opened the door to even more unrest in Iran. At the time Khomeini, who was living in France, came back to Iran from exile in early 1979, and through a series of movements and collapse of the government, became the supreme leader and formed an Islamic Republic with very strict religious tenets, and adopting anti-western views and mistrust of western countries (and people) across the board. That mistrust continues today, 40+ years later.

 

[Herdfan]

A brief and paraphrased history...

Thanks. I was 12 when all this happened. I remember the hostages but wasn't really sure of how it all went down.

 

[GermanSuplex]

Its bizarre. I get Islam is important, but the idea of this whole theocracy is just way too much, I’m actually surprised they’re able to keep the masses in subservience. The diet Islam you see over here in the west is a far cry from what you see in some of the countries over there. Like, as I mentioned Qatar, it’s relatively safe, but their ties to Iran and sheltering of terrorists makes me want to keep my ass here at home.

These nations could supplant their exports of oil, violence and need for fear-based rule with democracy, religious freedom and mass tourism.

 

[Citysnaps]

Some of the continuing mistrust of the US, UK, and other western countries I suspect was fomented by the CIA and MI6 organizing a coup and riots in the early 1950s to overthrow Mosaddegh (the prime minister of Iran at the time), who wanted to nationalize US and UK oil reserves and refineries in Iran. That lead to the western backed Shah to step in as leader of Iran.

 

[GermanSuplex]

Some of the continuing mistrust of the US, UK, and other western countries I suspect was fomented by the CIA and MI6 organizing a coup and riots in the early 1950s to overthrow Mosaddegh (the prime minister of Iran at the time), who wanted to nationalize US and UK oil reserves and refineries in Iran. That lead to the western backed Shah to step in as leader of Iran.

I appreciate your bite-sized nuggets of info.

 

[Roller]

Why does Iran not want to be seen as a civil and powerful nation? These Bronze Age barbarians shut themselves off. I’d love to visit Qatar and other huge cities in the Middle East. But there’s a lot of other nice countries and cities I can visit with significantly less risk of being kidnapped or beheaded on video.

A friend of mine visited Iran maybe 6 or 7 years ago. He loved it, and said everyone was friendly and welcoming. It's always important to distinguish the government, in this case a brutal theocracy, from the people, who also suffer at the hands of their rulers.

 

[GermanSuplex]

A friend of mine visited Iran maybe 6 or 7 years ago. He loved it, and said everyone was friendly and welcoming. It's always important to distinguish the government, in this case a brutal theocracy, from the people, who also suffer at the hands of their rulers.

Oh yeah, I’m sure most people come and go with no issues with common sense traveling research. Or maybe without.

But still, that kind of ropes back into what I was wondering with why so many seem to live in passive acceptance. I get most people want to live their life and be left alone, not protesting or battling evil forces, but it seems odd mass terrorism can persist with the deep pockets of a few, if the masses truly wanted peace and prosperity.

Then again, maybe they do, and the populations at large over there just aren’t too keen on wanting or needing our presence - in any form, including tourists. And I can’t blame them at all for that either. We may not be chopping off heads, but we have our own ways of being less than welcoming.

 

[Citysnaps]

A friend of mine visited Iran maybe 6 or 7 years ago. He loved it, and said everyone was friendly and welcoming. It's always important to distinguish the government, in this case a brutal theocracy, from the people, who also suffer at the hands of their rulers.

I was in Iran from '78 to '79. In Tehran the people were great. Tehran reminded me of San Francisco, bustling with modern buildings and skyscrapers, with tower cranes as far as you could see building a lot more. Pre-revolution women were smartly dressed in western attire. It was, and likely still is a beautiful country with a lot of interesting ancient history. Unfortunately, I wasn't there long enough to see those sights. Where I was working, farther north, people lived iin structures made of thatched mud, with open sewer trenches (called jubes) along the sides of dirt roads. Night and day difference.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

So one of the reasons for the Pro Palestinian protests on college campuses is because they want the college to divest from Israel. I don’t know what the details are on that, but why the hell are colleges investing in anything that doesn’t have to do directly with education?? For what they charge I’d be pretty damn pissed off about that and I’m not just talking about Israel. What else are they throwing money at that has absolutely nothing to do with getting a better education?

 

[rdrr]

So one of the reasons for the Pro Palestinian protests on college campuses is because they want the college to divest from Israel. I don’t know what the details are on that, but why the hell are colleges investing in anything that doesn’t have to do directly with education?? For what they charge I’d be pretty damn pissed off about that and I’m not just talking about Israel. What else are they throwing money at that has absolutely nothing to do with getting a better education?

Well for one thing NVIDIA is a company that has major R&D in Isreal. A lot of research computing is on GPU systems, and the leader in this space is NVIDIA.

 

[Roller]

So one of the reasons for the Pro Palestinian protests on college campuses is because they want the college to divest from Israel. I don’t know what the details are on that, but why the hell are colleges investing in anything that doesn’t have to do directly with education?? For what they charge I’d be pretty damn pissed off about that and I’m not just talking about Israel. What else are they throwing money at that has absolutely nothing to do with getting a better education?

I don't see anything wrong with colleges and universities investing in companies that don't have a direct connection to education, as long as they're not businesses that should be excluded for other reasons. After all, isn't the goal to maximize returns, assuming there are appropriate guardrails in place for conflicts of interest and such? You can argue that institutions of higher education are already rich enough, but that's a different story.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Well for one thing NVIDIA is a company that has major R&D in Isreal. A lot of research computing is on GPU systems, and the leader in this space is NVIDIA.

I don't see anything wrong with colleges and universities investing in companies that don't have a direct connection to education, as long as they're not businesses that should be excluded for other reasons. After all, isn't the goal to maximize returns, assuming there are appropriate guardrails in place for conflicts of interest and such? You can argue that institutions of higher education are already rich enough, but that's a different story.

That's what selling a product and the stock market is for. Companies don't need investments from colleges via outlandish tuition costs to students.

 

[GermanSuplex]

No offense to college grads here, but I’ve been less than impressed with the work ethics and common sense of the people coming from them. It may just be where I work, but everyone who comes in with a bachelor degree thinks they are now CEO of the office, and don’t have to do anything, include show up. Probably a relic of COVID and work from home.

Anyways, where is the liberal college outrage over the treatment of Jews? Forget Israel, look at what these dipsticks are doing to their own Jewish classmates? WTF does some random Jewish kid from Cleveland or wherever have to do with Hamas and Israel’s actions in Palestine?

Not to leave conservatives out of the mix either, they’re responsible for a lot of anti-semitism the rest of the calendar year.

The outrage needs to be more mixed. Where are the young and fired up activists the rest of the time asking for Middle East nations to join in on a two-state solution or help in ridding the region of Hamas? Or is everything hunky dory until Israel has to fight back after being attacked? Hardly.

 

[Roller]

That's what selling a product and the stock market is for. Companies don't need investments from colleges via outlandish tuition costs to students.

I don't disagree that college tuitions are too high. But, if an institution wants to grow its endowment, equity investments are one way to do it.